As Texan Dave noted yesterday, James Doohan, the actor who portrayed Scotty in "Star Trek," died yesterday. He was 85. Hidden down near the bottom of his obituary is this jewel about the man.

At 19, James escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. "The sea was rough," he recalled of the D-Day landing on Juno Beach. "We were more afraid of drowning than the Germans."

The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on the screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.

I wasn't a huge Trekkie, but I did see some of the TV shows as reruns and one or two of the movies. Scotty was always my favorite character. He was sort of the Everyman. It all makes sense now. He wasn't acting. His number came up on Juno Beach -- and a cigarette case saved his life. After that, it was -- as we say -- all gravy.

RIP to another one of our D-Day heroes.